How to diagnose dysgraphia

[saw]

I suspect that my 12 yo ds may have dysgraphia. It wouldn't be too surprising, since he has a variety of other issues as well. I'm looking in to getting him tested so that I can request accommodation for him at his school, which doesn't like to accommodate learning differences (not in the US, so we don't have the same legal protections here). If your dc are dysgraphic, would you please share what tests were used to establish this? Thx.

 

[Melly]

My dd has dysgraphia but her actual diagnosis was dyslexic tendencies.  She was diagnosed this way according to the psychologist because of the criteria in the DSM. I don't know exactly what tests were used to make this sort of diagnosis but I would imagine most any psychologist could diagnosis your son.  What country are you all in?  Does he attend private or public school?  Are you not homeschooling him?

[saw]

We're in the UK, and he's at choir school. He's required to board because of the choir, but that makes it difficult to keep an eye on him. The school itself is one of the top in the country, which is great, but is somewhat resistant to the idea of accommodating learning differences. In many ways the school is a perfect fit and better for him than homeschooling would be (his sisters are homeschooled, and his brother is afterschooled), but the whole handwriting/written expression thing keeps coming up.  I'll check the DSM and see what it has to say about dyslexic tendencies/dysgraphia. 

[Heathermomster]

I'm not certain of what specific tests were used to identify my son's dysgraphia.  He was given 6 hours of testing over a couple of days by a PhD Neuropsychologist. He's been tested in the same manner, twice and 4 years apart.  We are in the US, so I don't know how that would apply in your situation.

[CaitlinC]

Don't know if this adds to the discussion, but my ds was diagnosed with dysgraphia two days ago and I have the neuropsychologist's report in front of me.  I should perhaps mention that this is our second set of tests.  The first was with an educational pyschologist when he was in grade 2, and now he is going into grade 5.  He was not diagnosed  the first time around although she did flag it as a possibility.  The neuropsychologist had no difficulty in saying he had dysgraphia, and with similar kinds of results, so I think that who is doing the evaluation plays a role.  The neuropsych. was also no doubt influenced by all the things we've tried (OT, HWT, calligraphy, art lessons etc.) and the passage of time.  She noted that he performed below average in grapho-motor and fine motor abilities, using Coding Wisc IV and Visual-Motor Precision Nepsy IV as her gage (I don't know anything about these tests, just quoting from her report).  He had difficulties both with precision and speed.  She felt that his difficulties with spelling were mostly related to the motor issues and attention, since he was able to spell quite well if doing a spelling list.  The problem was integrating spelling and writing, at least in English (his second language was very weak, but we haven't been concentrating on that for the last year or so).  So I can't help you with the orthography dysgraphia.  She also looked at a handwriting sample and noted traits consistent with dysgraphia (hard to read, frequent erasures/corrections, insufficient speed of copying, poor legibility, difficulty translating thoughts into writing).  Good luck!  I think the accommodations that she recommended are going to be very helpful for my ds.

 

[saw]

Thanks Caitlin, that's very helpful. DS was first tested at GDC when he was going into grade 2, now he's going into grade 7. We realized at the time that dysgraphia was a possibility but that took a back seat to the vision processing, general fine motor, APD, etc. I'll be sure to discuss the dysgraphia-specific traits you mention with the ed psych.

[geodob]

Though you shouldn't give too much concern with the label Dysgraphia.   As it  could equally be defined as a Written Expression Disorder.

Given that the school is resistant to accommodations.

What you could highlight, is that it effects his ability to demonstrate his cognitive abilities.

So that what you want, is for them to enable your son to use more appropriate ways to demonstrate his cognitive abilities.

Though the school quite likely has no idea what sort of accommodations they could make?

So that you will probably need to explain what accommodations to be used.

 

In regard to a diagnosis? As it seems that he has already been diagnosed with vision processing and general fine motor difficulties?

These are the 2 major causes of Dysgraphia.  Where the effect that these have on handwriting are a symptom.

So that a new diagnosis, would just add another symptom, resulting from his previously defined fine motor and vision processing issues.